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Sunday, November 6, 2011

Jamaican Chicken Curry

Jamaican Chicken Curry uses a blend of onions and peppers in a Caribbean spicy curry sauce to create an outstandingly delicious dish. It is among my favorite dishes and it has become one of the most popular recipes on my blog.

In this variation of the dish, I briefly braise succulent chicken wings to a fall-off-the-bone texture in just 30 minutes of cooking time. Wings are a great option for this dish since they absorbs the flavors of the curry well and can be cooked in short time.

Along with key ingredients of onions, scallions, thyme, and bell peppers, I highly recommend the following brand spices for this dish: JCS Reggae Country Style Jamaican Curry Powder, JCS Reggae Country Style Boston Dry Jerk Seasoning, and Matouk's Calypso Sauce. The Calypso Sauce especially gives this dish a nice flavor using its blend of scotch bonnet peppers to give the dish heat. All three spices can usually be found at specialty Caribbean or African food stores. If there isn't a specialty food store near you, Amazon.com offers the spices on its website and can deliver them to your door. Below are the key bottled ingredients used in this dish.

Step 1: Combine lemon juice, lime juice and 3 cups of water in a large bowl. Then add the chicken wings to the bowl to soak in the water for about 5 minutes. Remove the chicken wings from water mixture and place on a plate or pan to dry.

Note: In my search for a Jamaican Curry Chicken recipe, every recipe I found starts out with washing or soaking the chicken in water with lemon and lime. I did not find an explanation for why this is done, but the consistency across all recipes was so strong that I felt that this step could not be excluded.

Step 2: When the wings are reasonably dry, it is time to start the marination process. In a large bowl combine the chicken wings, the chopped scallions, the sliced bell peppers, JCS Jamaican Curry Powder, JCS Boston Dry Jerk seasoning, thyme, soy sauce, Matouk's Calypso Sauce, and half of the sliced onions. Mix all the ingredients with your hands making sure to massage the meat until it is fully coated and yellow in color. Cover the marinated chicken bowl with foil and let stand for at least half an hour. I usually let mine marinate for a full two hours.

Step 3: In a large pan or wok (with lid), heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil at medium high. Add only the chicken wings to the pan stirring frequently until skin browns on all sides. (about 5-8 minutes).

Step 4: Lower the heat to medium low and add the marinated vegetables of onions, scallions, and bell peppers to the pan with the chicken wings. Pour the remaining cup of water into the bowl with marinated sauce and transfer the combined mixture into the pan as well. Then add the remaining half of sliced onions to the top of the simmering chicken curry and cover to simmer for additional 30 minutes and this dish is ready to be served. Enjoy